Sunday, October 30, 2016

It's been a while since I last blogged (... can blog be used as a verb???). The usual depression blahs have taken hold ... but we ever struggle on and the fight is day by day (... by day ... by day ... by day ... etc.) Life has been all kinds of things ... difficult ... stressful ... frustrating ... exhausting ... (you get the picture) ... :(But some EXCITING stuff has been happening too ... and though it has been adding to the tiredness and stress, it's the "good" kind that I don't mind so much.

I MADE A THING!!!Now some of you may be asking yourself ... "Is that a real ugly helmet?" ...Others may be asking ... "Is that a real ugly planter?" ...But to the educated Norse re-enactor, they will be saying, "No, it a real ugly DaLarna-stytle cooking pot! ... and they would be RIGHT!I was fortunate to get invited to go down to Pennsylvania and visit with my new friends Stevan and Marci Waleff and participate in a weekend cauldron making class. In two days Stevan taught me (and a few others) how to shape 3 flat plates of steel into a "replica" of a Norse period 4L cooking pot. It's not quite finished yet - I had to leave early to make it back home in time to get ready to return to the classroom on the following Monday - the handle and hangers still need to be formed and attached but I think I can handle that on my own (... see what I did there? :) ) I know it's not that pretty ... and there are LOTS of mistakes in it ... but I think I've figured out where I went wrong and look forward to making more of these. I came out of the workshop with one (almost) complete pot and templates to make more 2L, 4L and 6L DaLarna cooking pots. Stevan is talking about a spring workshop to make Oseberg cauldrons ... I really want to take this one too ... I hope I can fit the time in. ... huh ... pots ... who knew?